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Customer service Engagement

A Love Story about Customer Care & Employee Engagement

In time for Valentine’s Day, here’s a story about a love that is lost and recovered.

It’s quite an extraordinary story because it’s about a business: Zane’s Cycles – a business that’s truly passionate about customer service.

Act 1, some time before Valentine’s Day: A customer wants to surprise her husband with a bike from Zane’s Cycles as a Valentine’s gift. She makes a special request to place the bike in the store window – since she planned to take her husband by the store after a Valentine’s dinner when the store is normally closed. She gives the store balloons and a card to place on the bike for display and invites friends from work to see her husband’s reaction to the gift. However, before closing the store that day, an employee forgets to put the bike in the front window. Uh oh …

Act 2, February 15th: Chris Zane, owner of Zane’s Cycles, gets a voice mail from an extremely upset customer complaining that the store forget to display her husband’s gift as promised and ruined her Valentine’s Day surprise. Chris and his retail manager go into customer service “recovery” mode:

  • They apologize to the woman and deliver the bike to her home. Even though the bike was purchased on layaway and only partially paid for, Zane’s waives the remaining balance.
  • To make up for the disappointing Valentine’s Day, they give the woman and her husband a restaurant gift certificate for another dinner.
  • And to make up for disappointing her friends from work who took the time to witness the Valentine’s Day gift, Zane’s sends a catered lunch to the woman’s workplace.

Even though the situation didn’t turn out as initially expected, the customer is happy with Zane’s response.

Act 3, about a week later: Chris receives a letter of apology from the employee who forget to display the bike. The employee knows how much effort went into this customer’s recovery and includes a check for $400 to help cover the out-of-pocket recovery costs. As an hourly employee, the check represents about a week’s pay.

I love this story, and not just because of Zane’s Cycles’ extraordinary effort to recover from a negative customer service situation. What moved me most when I first heard Chris tell this story is how the employee acknowledged his role and tried to repay the company. It’s an incredible testament to the customer-focused and engaged culture that Chris Zane has built.

Note: Chris did not cash the check; he keeps it as a reminder of employees’ passion for service.

You can hear Chris tell this story in his own words on The CEO Show.

Categories
Engagement

Employee Engagement Questions with New Management

A key finding from Blessing White’s 2011 Employee Engagement Report is that employees “view opportunities to apply their talents, career development and training as top drivers of job satisfaction.”

Managers who have worked with employees for a while are usually familiar with their staff’s ongoing talent development and career aspirations. But there is little of this familiarity when a new employee is brought in that the manager doesn’t know as well. Ditto for a new manager assigned to the group. In such situations, beyond the information contained in an employee’s HR file, how can managers gain insight into employee job preferences and career goals?

Here are several questions (adapted from a New York Times interview with Lockerz CEO Kathy Savitt) you can use as discussion starters:

  • What do you love most about the work you do?
  • If you could take all your abilities and create a job description, what would it look like?
  • If every employee was made a CEO of something on their first day with this company, what would you be CEO of?

I invite you to share other insightful questions you find to be helpful. Your experience in handling these discussions is also welcome.

Categories
Marketing

Why Nonprofits Need to Look Backward as Well as Forward

Talking about nonprofit marketing with colleagues recently sparked an interesting discussion on using an organization’s history (aka “heritage marketing”) – for example, celebrating a notable anniversary of a nonprofit’s founding to kick-off a fundraising drive or reinforce an organization’s longevity and brand.

Given the dynamic pace of change today, some might question whether this approach is outmoded. Shouldn’t nonprofits focus on the future rather than the past?

My answer is that an organization’s history shouldn’t be ignored because the past is tangible, the future is not. Through historic records, past meeting minutes and reports, photos, audio visuals, and printed matter, you can:

  • revisit, review, and explore the past as a way to understand what worked and what didn’t
  • gain insight into how the organization, its mission, and its culture have evolved
  • and leverage this knowledge to help the organization continue to evolve and adapt in a changing world.

It’s the reason we consider both the past and the future in strategic planning – to reflect on an organization’s history as part of a situational analysis and use it as a bridge to help envision the future.

Categories
Engagement

A Fargo-ne Approach to Employee Engagement

Imagine a sales team working for a trip to Hawaii. Sounds great, doesn’t it? But when they don’t quite meet their goals, they are sent to Fargo ND instead.

This is a true story about employee engagement and sales performance made all the sweeter by the fact that it’s about Just Born, a candy company with great brands: Peeps, Mike & Ike, Hot Tamales, and Peanut Chews.

What I find most fascinating about this story is how Just Born made it work as a unique approach to employee engagement:

 

  • The sales team was involved in the decision-making. Employees chose both locations, so they knew what was in store for them if they met or didn’t meet their goals.
  • The trip strengthened team-bonding as it was set up as an “adventure” in which the sales team enjoyed special tours and fun events to immerse themselves in the Fargo experience.
  • As a demonstration of leadership commitment, top executives shared in the experience. Just Born’s co-CEO’s, Ross Born and David Shaffer, also traveled to Fargo.

All-in-all, a fascinating approach to employee engagement, albeit a risky one as Paul Hebert explores in his blog post the possibility that it might reinforce under-performance. Given my familiarity with the company and its leadership [disclaimer: I know David and Ross socially], it’s not an issue for Just Born. They strive to live the company’s values.

So score one for Just Born for creatively engaging their sales “peeps” … and getting a sweet public relations bonus in the process.

 

Categories
Engagement Marketing Training & Development

Valuable Career Insights

2011 year marks my 36th year in the workplace (excluding part-time and summer jobs I held as a teen). I can honestly say I’ve enjoyed most of it, especially these past 23 years in business as Quality Service Marketing.

I’ve learned a tremendous amount as my career evolved. Reflecting on my experience, I can highlight valuable insights and lessons learned in the key roles I serve.

  • As a services marketer, I learned that customer-focus begins with employee-focus because, quite simply, employees ARE the brand. The need to recognize and reinforce employee value continues to drive my passion for internal marketing.
  • As a speaker & trainer, I learned:
    • It’s all about respect for my audience – understanding who they are and what about the topic appeals to them so I can target my presentation accordingly.
    • Equally important, it’s all about application – engaging and enabling audience members to consider how the information applies to their situation and how they can use it.
  • As a facilitator, I learned it’s all about the questions. I believe my clients have most of the answers they seek, they just don’t realize it. So my primary role is to engage them in discovery by asking the right questions.
  • Above all, as a business professional, I learned it’s all about demonstrating respect and integrity in working with my clients, my colleagues, and all the other important professionals (suppliers, printers, accountants, etc.), I partner with.

These valuable insights have served me well throughout my career, and they continue to influence how I do what I do.

What insights and lessons have made the most impact in your career?

Categories
Engagement

Free Gifts for Nonprofit Managers

Here are several resources you can use now and in the New Year to help advance your organization’s mission:

These are gifts that are meant to be shared … enjoy!

 

Categories
Engagement Marketing

Quality Service Marketing Joins the World Wide Web

I’m happy to introduce my new website! Until now I resisted the idea, using this blog in lieu of a separate website. So why now – especially given social media’s blending of internet marketing tools?

The decision to have my own website was necessitated by two key factors:

  • the growth of my business – in the past several years since my book was published, I’ve been researched and contacted by more organizations interested in employee-customer care. While my blog contains a wealth of such content written over the past six years, prospects told me they preferred a site where they could get a quicker overview of my work.
  • the growth of social media and my involvement in it (including my recent foray in Twitter) – here, again, I needed a better way to convey my brand to new network contacts.

Special thanks to Spectyr Media for designing and developing www.qualityservicemarketing.net. Yes, Spectyr Media’s principal is my son, Jason … and yes, I insisted on paying him for his professional services and web-hosting. Just don’t ask him about the extra pay he deserved for his patience in putting up with my technophobia!

Categories
Musings

Wading into the Social Media Pool

An update on my progress with social media:

I recently started tweeting (finally!). My initial concerns about getting into Twitter involved time & technology (yes, I’m a bit of a technophobe). So I’m taking my time to get comfortable with learning how to post & re-tweet … making new connections … and seeing what other relevant, interesting information is out there.

What I find overwhelming is the amount of information on Twitter – I’m concerned about adding to information overload (especially when I see people frequently tweet quotes as a way to maintain a Twitter presence). To help manage my anxiety in this area, I rely on these words of wisdom:

  1. Tweeting content in response to ‘What’s got your attention?’ rather than ‘What are you doing?’ [Gleaned from a number of Twitter how-to blog posts and e-books.]
  2. Focus on contributing to the knowledge base, rather than contributing to the noise. [Thanks to my friend Debra Semans for this advice.]

I’d love to hear from other social media veterans and newbies: How do you deal with information overload on Twitter?

 

Categories
Musings

Giving Thanks

“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” – William Arthur Ward

This year, I’m especially grateful for:

  • celebrating happy occasions with family and friends (weddings, births, and other special milestones)
  • reconnecting with hometown classmates and campmates via FB (along with a few mini-reunions)
  • getting together with friends and colleagues at conferences and workshops
  • continuing to work with wonderful clients
  • experimenting with new technology (including my new company website, home to my first e-book, and teaching my first webinar).

And, as always, I’m most thankful for the love and support of my family and friends.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Categories
Customer service Engagement Marketing Training & Development

What Still Matters: Three Years Later

I’ve been so busy traveling the past few weeks, I forgot to celebrate the third anniversary of my book’s release. Taking Care of the People Who Matter Most: A Guide to Employee-Customer Care was published in October 2007, and sales are still going strong – despite the economy and because of it. As companies struggle to hold onto their business in this downturn, employee and customer engagement are more critical than ever.

In the past three years I traveled coast–to-coast to speak with business and nonprofit professionals who want to strengthen this engagement through internal marketing. What surprised me most is that while I met with marketing and human resources staff (as expected), my audiences were also filled with engineers, nonprofit managers, social workers, association executives, healthcare practice managers, municipal administrators, educators, and software consultants. They willingly shared “the good, the bad, and the ugly” of workplace engagement. (Little shocks me anymore … at the same time, I continue to be encouraged to hear what works.)

Looking back over the past three years, here’s what I’ve learned from these diverse audiences:

  1. Engaging employees and customers with internal marketing is intuitive, but not intentional enough – managers need reminders to “take care of employees to take care of customers.”
  2. Even with restructuring/downsizing/hierarchical flattening, too many organizational silos remain – employees continue to feel disconnected and disenfranchised.
  3. Management-by-wandering-around (MBWA) is making a comeback – while this practice isn’t as popular as it used to be, it hasn’t gone out of style.

Employees want and need to feel their work matters. Together with customers, they want to know that they are respected and valued.Why is this so difficult?

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